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| Strong magnets put new twist on phonons Posted: 15 Feb 2022 01:34 PM PST Phonons, quasiparticles in a crystal lattice that are usually hard to control by external fields, can be manipulated by a magnetic field -- but it takes a very strong magnet. |
| Key brain mechanisms for organizing memories in time Posted: 15 Feb 2022 01:34 PM PST Using experiments and a deep machine learning data analysis approach, scientists uncovered the fundamental workings of the hippocampus region of the brain as it organizes memories into time sequences. The work could help future research into cognitive disorders such as Alzheimer's disease and other causes of dementia. |
| Starting antiretroviral therapy early essential to battling not one, but two killers Posted: 15 Feb 2022 12:28 PM PST Medication against the nonhuman primate version of HIV given two weeks after infection helped keep tuberculosis in check. |
| Tracking seasonal and tidal effects on wastewater pollutants in the River Ganges Posted: 15 Feb 2022 11:08 AM PST A new analysis of the River Ganges in West Bengal, India, highlights how wastewater flowing into the river impacts its water quality, and how that influence shifts with seasons and tides. |
| Study highlights worldwide disparities in treatment rates for major depressive disorder Posted: 15 Feb 2022 11:07 AM PST A combined analysis of results from 149 earlier studies finds that treatment rates for major depressive disorder remain low worldwide, particularly for people living in low and lower-middle income countries. |
| Human microbiome research excludes developing world, study finds Posted: 15 Feb 2022 11:07 AM PST New studies emerge daily on the effect of the human microbiome on human health: colon cancer, ulcers, and cognitive conditions such as Alzheimer's disease have been associated with the communities of microbes that live in our bodies. However, global research into the human microbiome is heavily biased in favor of wealthy countries such as the United States and United Kingdom, according to a new study. |
| Years of life lost during the pandemic significantly higher in deprived areas, study finds Posted: 15 Feb 2022 11:07 AM PST The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic hit hardest in deprived areas of England and Wales, with excess years of life lost more than three times as high in the North West than the South West of England. The research also finds 11 times as many excess deaths in 15-44 year olds in the most deprived areas compared to the most affluent ones. |
| Decoding KODA production to augment stress resistance in plants Posted: 15 Feb 2022 10:46 AM PST KODA, an agrochemical produced in extremely low amounts, which helps plants cope with environmental stressors, has been the subject of extensive research. To bolster KODA production, researchers have developed a novel plant-based platform. Using biotechnology tools, they successfully expressed external genes that facilitate KODA production in test plant species, and further improved KODA yield through incubation over time. |
| How embryo cells gain independence Posted: 15 Feb 2022 10:46 AM PST It happens in the first hours after fertilization: The cells of the early embryo begin to independently produce proteins, the building blocks for cells and organs. Their own, uniquely composed genetic material serves as the blueprint. In vertebrates, the starting signal for this process comes from three maternal proteins that bind to the DNA of the offspring. New findings now show, using a zebrafish model, how two of these three start proteins of the egg cell elicit their roles and how they act in further development. |
| 'Blue Blob' near Iceland could slow glacial melting Posted: 15 Feb 2022 10:46 AM PST A region of cooling water in the North Atlantic Ocean near Iceland, nicknamed the 'Blue Blob,' has likely slowed the melting of the island's glaciers since 2011 and may continue to stymie ice loss until about 2050, according to new research. |
| Algorithm could shorten quality testing, research in many industries by months Posted: 15 Feb 2022 09:55 AM PST A machine-learning algorithm could provide auto manufacturing, aerospace and other industries a faster and more cost-efficient way to test bulk materials. |
| Air chemistry data from South Korea field study puts models to the test Posted: 15 Feb 2022 09:55 AM PST An international effort to measure air quality in South Korea, a region with complex sources of pollution, may provide new insights into the atmospheric chemistry that produces ozone pollution, according to a team of scientists. |
| Outstanding question in theoretical models of memory addressed Posted: 15 Feb 2022 09:55 AM PST A research team has discovered that communication between two key memory regions in the brain determines how what we experience becomes part of what we remember, and as these regions mature, the precise ways by which they interact make us better at forming lasting memories. |
| A new atlas of cells that carry blood to the brain Posted: 15 Feb 2022 09:55 AM PST Researchers created a comprehensive atlas of the types of cells found in the brain cerebrovasculature, which provides oxygen and nutrients to the brain and helps form the blood-brain barrier. They also found significant differences between healthy cells and those from Huntington's disease patients. |
| Computer models show how crop production increases soil nitrous oxide emissions Posted: 15 Feb 2022 09:55 AM PST A computer modeling study shows how the emissions of the greenhouse gas nitrous oxide have increased from soils over the last century. The newly published research found the expansion of land devoted to agriculture since 1900 and intensive fertilizer inputs have predominantly driven an overall increase in nitrous oxide emissions from U.S. soils. |
| Posted: 15 Feb 2022 09:55 AM PST African children and adolescents hospitalized with COVID-19 experience much higher mortality rates than Europeans or North Americans of the same age, according to a new study. |
| Predicting 30-day mortality risk for patients with alcohol-associated hepatitis Posted: 15 Feb 2022 09:54 AM PST Researchers have developed a new scoring system to help health care professionals predict the 30-day mortality risk for patients with alcohol-associated hepatitis, and the tool appears to more accurately identify patients at highest risk of death and those likely to survive. |
| Pandemic upends breast cancer diagnoses Posted: 15 Feb 2022 09:54 AM PST Researchers surveyed and compared early- and late-stage breast and colorectal cancer diagnoses in patients in pre-pandemic 2019 and in 2020, the first full year of the COVID-19 pandemic, discovering fewer of the former and more of the latter as patients delayed care. |
| COVID-19 vaccination boosts mental health along with immunity, study finds Posted: 15 Feb 2022 09:54 AM PST Receiving at least one vaccine dose was associated with statistically significant declines in multiple psychological distress factors, researchers report in a new study. |
| Climate change and extreme weather will have complex effects on disease transmission Posted: 15 Feb 2022 08:34 AM PST Temperature fluctuations such as heatwaves can have very different effects on infection rates and disease outcomes depending on the average background temperature, says a new report. |
| How a protein controls the production of nerve cells in the brain Posted: 15 Feb 2022 08:34 AM PST Researchers have discovered that the protein YME1L regulates the production of new nerve cells and the maintenance of neural stem cells in the adult brain. This holds great potential for regenerative treatments after brain injuries and other diseases. |
| Discovery of ancient plant fossils in Washington points to paleobotanic mystery Posted: 15 Feb 2022 08:34 AM PST A new description of two well-preserved ancient fossil plant specimens in Washington state is prompting paleobotanists to rethink how plants might have been dispersed during the Late Cretaceous, between 66 and 100 million years ago. |
| When a protective gene buffers a bad one, a heart can beat Posted: 15 Feb 2022 08:34 AM PST It was a medical mystery: When scientists induced a particular genetic mutation in mouse eggs, the resulting embryos would all die in the womb within a week. And yet, people with the same troublesome gene are thriving. |
| Gene editing now possible in ticks Posted: 15 Feb 2022 08:34 AM PST Researchers have successfully used CRISPR-Cas9 to edit the genomes of the black-legged tick. To accomplish this feat, they developed an embryo injection protocol that overcame a major barrier in the field. |
| Memory formation influenced by how brain networks develop during youth Posted: 15 Feb 2022 08:33 AM PST In a new, rare study of direct brain recordings in children and adolescents, scientists have discovered as brains mature, the precise ways by which two key memory regions in the brain communicate make us better at forming lasting memories. The findings also suggest how brains learn to multitask with age. Historically, a lack of high-resolution data from children's brains have led to gaps in our understanding of how the developing brain forms memories. The study innovated the use of intracranial electroencephalogram (iEEG) on pediatric patients to examine how brain development supports memory development. |
| Beset in mucus, coronavirus particles likely travel farther than once thought, study finds Posted: 15 Feb 2022 08:33 AM PST A modeling study raises questions about how far droplets, like those that carry the virus that causes COVID-19, can travel before becoming harmless. |
| An innovative technology for 6G communication networks Posted: 15 Feb 2022 07:28 AM PST Carrying data streams using the terahertz (THz) spectral region could meet the ever-growing demand for unprecedented data transfer rates, i.e. terabits-per-second (Tb/s), since it offers a higher available bandwidth. However, it is extremely challenging to develop physical components that go beyond the most elementary processing functionalities for constructing future communication systems at THz frequencies. Scientists have now developed a new waveguide to overcome those limitations. |
| MRI sheds light on COVID vaccine-associated heart muscle injury Posted: 15 Feb 2022 07:28 AM PST Vaccine-associated myocarditis shows a similar injury pattern on cardiac MRI compared to other causes of myocarditis, but abnormalities are less severe, according to a new study. |
| Researchers create molecule that can pave way for mini-transistors Posted: 15 Feb 2022 06:55 AM PST Researchers have succeeded in developing a simple hydrocarbon molecule with a logic gate function, similar to that in transistors, in a single molecule. The discovery could make electric components on a molecular scale possible in the future. |
| 'Freeze or flee' reactions run in fish families Posted: 15 Feb 2022 06:55 AM PST Families of fish tend to share similar reactions to stressful situations, new research shows. |
| Antibodies improve in quality for months after COVID-19 vaccination Posted: 15 Feb 2022 06:55 AM PST Antibodies elicited by COVID-19 vaccination become steadily more powerful for at least six months after vaccination, according to a new study. |
| Accelerated ammonia synthesis holds promise for conversion of renewable energy Posted: 15 Feb 2022 06:25 AM PST Scientists reveal a way to make ammonia from its constituent molecules of nitrogen and hydrogen at ambient pressure. |
| Speed of sound used to measure elasticity of materials Posted: 15 Feb 2022 06:25 AM PST Researchers have devised a revolutionary new technique for measuring the microscopic elasticity of materials. Known as SRAS, the technology works by measuring the speed of sound across the material's surface. |
| Human olfactory mucosa cell model opens a new perspective on Alzheimer’s disease Posted: 15 Feb 2022 06:25 AM PST Researchers have developed and characterized a new cell model for Alzheimer's disease that has wide utility for research and could prove useful in early diagnosis and testing of new therapies. |
| Psilocybin treatment for major depression effective for up to a year for most patients, study shows Posted: 15 Feb 2022 06:01 AM PST Previous studies have shown that psychedelic treatment with psilocybin relieved major depressive disorder symptoms in adults for up to a month. Now, in a follow-up study of those participants, the researchers report that the substantial antidepressant effects of psilocybin-assisted therapy, given with supportive psychotherapy, may last at least a year for some patients. |
| Psyche, the iron giant of asteroids, may be less iron than researchers thought Posted: 15 Feb 2022 04:51 AM PST Scientists have thought that the asteroid Psyche could be a big ball of pure iron, but new research suggests it's likely harboring a hidden rocky component. |
| Lichens are in danger of losing the evolutionary race with climate change Posted: 15 Feb 2022 04:51 AM PST To learn how lichens might be able to adapt to climate change, researchers examined the evolutionary history of the algae that's a part of 7,000 kinds of lichens. By studying genetic relationships between algae and building a giant family tree to show how different algae are elated to each other and how quickly they evolve, the scientists found that this algae can take hundreds of thousands of years to adapt to the changes in temperature that we expect to see over the course of this century. That means that these lichens are in dire trouble when it comes to climate change. |
| Model of the human nose reveals first steps of SARS-CoV-2 and RSV infection Posted: 15 Feb 2022 04:51 AM PST Researchers report the development of a versatile human nose organoid -- a laboratory representation of the cells layering the inside of the nose where the first events of a natural viral infection take place -- where they studied SARS-Cov-2 and RSV infections. |
| Researchers use supercomputers for largest-ever turbulence simulations of its kind Posted: 14 Feb 2022 05:40 PM PST Despite being among the most researched topics on supercomputers, a fundamental understanding of the effects of turbulent motion on fluid flows still eludes scientists. A new approach aims to change that. |
| Reacting to a changing environment involves inhibiting previous behavior Posted: 14 Feb 2022 05:40 PM PST Researchers teamed up to understand the role of flexibility and inhibition in problem solving and how they relate to each other in a behaviorally flexible urban bird species, the great-tailed grackle. The researchers assessed the cognitive abilities of individuals using multiple tests, and found that self control, a form of inhibition, was linked with flexibility, the ability to change preferences when circumstances change. |
| Astronomers discover a new type of star covered in helium burning ashes Posted: 14 Feb 2022 03:33 PM PST Astronomers have discovered a strange new type of star covered in the by-product of helium burning. It is possible that the stars might have been formed by a rare stellar merger event. |
| Ending the debate: New research solves longstanding Antarctic climate change mystery Posted: 14 Feb 2022 03:33 PM PST New research definitively resolves a long-standing discrepancy in the geologic record that pitted studies of marine ice-sheet behavior against those that reconstructed past conditions on land. The research lends additional weight to evidence that the Antarctic Ice Sheet is sensitive to small changes in carbon dioxide levels and that, in the past, large portions of the ice sheet could have disappeared under carbon dioxide levels similar to today. |
| New drug combination effective for patients with advanced ovarian cancer Posted: 14 Feb 2022 03:33 PM PST A new study shows ixabepilone plus bevacizumab (IXA+BEV) is a well-tolerated, effective combination for treatment of platinum/taxane-resistant ovarian cancer compared to ixabepilone (IXA) alone. |
| Posted: 14 Feb 2022 03:33 PM PST Cutting-edge research has observed time crystals in a system that is not isolated from its ambient environment. This major achievement brings scientists one step closer to developing time crystals for use in real-world applications. |
| Scientists discover new electrolyte for solid-state lithium-ion batteries Posted: 14 Feb 2022 03:33 PM PST Scientists have created a chlorine-based solid-state electrolyte for lithium-ion batteries that offers improved performance. |
| Researchers develop model to predict treatment response in gastric cancer Posted: 14 Feb 2022 03:33 PM PST A study is validating the use of genomic sequencing to predict the likelihood that patients with gastric cancer will derive benefit from chemotherapy or from immunotherapy. |
| Scientists develop biophysical model to help better diagnose and treat osteoarthritis Posted: 14 Feb 2022 12:49 PM PST Scientists have teamed up to explore cartilage tissue's unique properties with the hopes of improving osteoarthritis diagnosis and treatment. |
| High-resolution probe may help unlock secrets of brain function and neurological diseases Posted: 14 Feb 2022 12:48 PM PST A novel probe developed in 2017 allowed unprecedented recording of brain activity but only in small lab animals. MGH researchers and colleagues have successfully used a modified version of the probe to measure brain activity in humans. Insights gleaned from data acquired by this modified tool could have profound implications for the understanding of how the brain functions in good health and in disease. |
| Dead or alive: Seagrasses continue to release methane after their die-off Posted: 14 Feb 2022 12:48 PM PST Seagrass meadows play an important role in the marine carbon cycle and our climate. On the one hand, they sequester carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and store it underground, on the other hand, they emit the potent greenhouse gas methane. Researchers have now investigated what controls methane production and release from seagrass meadows. |
| What lies beneath: Roots as drivers of South African landscape pattern Posted: 14 Feb 2022 12:48 PM PST Research findings suggest that alternative stable states can be maintained through biotic mechanisms, such as root traits, in addition to the commonly understood abiotic factors like climate. This insight is critical to conserving threatened ecosystems around the world. |
| Tilting of Earth’s crust governed the flow of ancient megafloods Posted: 14 Feb 2022 12:48 PM PST As ice sheets began melting at the end of the last ice age, a series of cataclysmic floods called the Missoula megafloods scoured the landscape of eastern Washington, carving long, deep channels and towering cliffs through an area now known as the Channeled Scablands. They were among the largest known floods in Earth's history, and geologists struggling to reconstruct them have now identified a crucial factor governing their flows. A new study shows how the changing weight of the ice sheets would have caused the entire landscape to tilt, changing the course of the megafloods. |
| At bioenergy crossroads, should corn ethanol be left in the rearview mirror? Posted: 14 Feb 2022 12:48 PM PST A new analysis shows that the carbon emissions from using land to grow corn can negate or even reverse any climate advantages of corn ethanol relative to gasoline. |
| Global study finds the extent of pharmaceutical pollution in the world's rivers Posted: 14 Feb 2022 12:48 PM PST A new study looking at the presence of pharmaceuticals in the world's rivers found concentrations at potentially toxic levels in more than a quarter of the locations studied. |
| For female yellowthroats, there’s more than one way to spot a winning mate Posted: 14 Feb 2022 12:48 PM PST One population of female common yellowthroats prefer males with larger black masks, but another group of females favors a larger yellow bib. A new study has found that both kinds of ornaments are linked to superior genes. |
| Compressing gene libraries to expand accessibility, research opportunities Posted: 14 Feb 2022 12:48 PM PST In image compression, a large file that could be cumbersome to store or share loses a small amount of visual information. This 'lossiness' largely preserves the image while vastly reducing its file size -- and serves as the inspiration for a new research direction in genomics, according to a professor of biomedical engineering. |
| First get your heart in shape then get pregnant Posted: 14 Feb 2022 11:40 AM PST More than one in two young women between the ages of 20 and 44 who gave birth in the United States in 2019 had poor heart health before becoming pregnant, the study found. Poor heart health puts expectant mothers and their babies at risk, with heart disease causing more than one in four pregnancy-related deaths. |
| Solar-powered system offers a route to inexpensive desalination Posted: 14 Feb 2022 11:40 AM PST Researchers developed a desalination system that is more efficient and less expensive than previous methods. In addition to providing fresh water, the process could be used to treat contaminated wastewater or generate steam for sterilizing medical instruments, all without requiring a power source other than sunlight. |
| Fighting poverty won’t jeopardize climate goals Posted: 14 Feb 2022 11:40 AM PST If the UN Sustainable Development Goal to lift over one billion people out of poverty were to be reached in 2030, the impact on global carbon emissions would be minimal. That sounds good; however, the main reason for this is the huge inequality in the carbon footprint of rich and poor nations. |
| Highly responsive immune cells seem to be beneficial for the brain Posted: 14 Feb 2022 11:40 AM PST New findings support the view that hyperactive immune cells in the brain can have a protective effect in the course of neurodegenerative diseases. |
| Behind a good mutation: How a gene variant protects against Alzheimer’s Posted: 14 Feb 2022 11:40 AM PST While the word 'mutation' may conjure up alarming notions, a mutation in brain immune cells serves a positive role in protecting people against Alzheimer's disease. Now biologists have discovered the mechanisms behind this crucial process. |
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